Personality and attitudinal correlates of trusting and trustworthy behaviors in a two-person game.

Abstract

2 experiments were completed, with the purposes of determining (1) if personality and attitudinal variables might be related to extent of trusting and trustworthy behaviors in a 2-person non-zero-sum game, and (2) if playing for moderate sums of real money would produce the same behaviors as playing for imaginary money. Scores on the Philosophies of Human Nature Scale were related to trusting behavior; persons who believe human nature to be altruistic, trustworthy, and independent behaved in the game situation in more trusting ways than did Ss with unfavorable attitudes about human nature. No attitude or personality variable was found to be related to trustworthy behavior in the game. In each experiment, playing for real vs. imaginary payoffs had little influence on S's game behavior. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)